The Pope Prays for Mexico As Another Earthquake Strikes The Country - Perspectives Daily

Greeting the pilgrims who gathered at St. Peter’s Square for his weekly general audience, the Pope reflected on the virtue of Hope and offering his guidance and encouragement to young people saying: “Wherever the Lord has planted you, stand firm in hope; never lose heart”. Here now is the summary.

Immediately after his catechesis, the Pope expressed his closeness to the people of Mexico, after the country was hit by a magnitude 7.1 earthquake yesterday, that killed more than 240 people. This catastrophe added to the anguish of the Mexican people who just suffered a magnitude 8.1 earthquake 12 days earlier leaving over 100 dead in the country's southern states.

Now to better prepare priests and pastoral workers to help meet the challenges they face, the Pope has retooled the 36 year old Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family and changed its name to The Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for the Sciences of Marriage and Family, and gave it a much broader mandate.

The purpose of this new institution is to expand and deepen the types of courses it offers, taking an analytical and diversified approach that will allow students to study all aspects and concerns of today's families. With a larger mandate, this new institute will focus, on the biblical, the dogmatic and a historical dimension as well as the contemporary challenges faced by the family.

It replaces the original Institute set up by St. John Paul 2nd, after the 1980 synod on the family, which called for the creation of centers devoted to the study of the church's teaching on marriage and the family.

Speaking of families, we bring you now the second part of our interview with Fr. Tim Barlett, the Secretary General of the World Meeting of Families, who spoke to our own, Francis Denis, about the main theme of the upcoming World Meeting of Families in Ireland.

That's all that we have time for today. Join us again on tomorrow, when we bring you more news and stories from the Perspectives of a Catholic lens. Thanks for joining us.

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